CU-Boulder announces 3 finalists for new conservative scholar position

Hayward will give a presentation titled "Is 'Conservative Environmentalist' an Oxymoron?" from 3 to 4 p.m. Friday in Old Main.

He holds a doctoral degree in American studies from Claremont Graduate School. He has been the F.K. Weyerhaeuser fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he was a principal author and project director of AEI's "Energy and Environment Outlook."

He has been a visiting lecturer in the government department at Georgetown University and is a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. He also has served as a Bradley fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

Hayward's essays have been published in The Washington Post, National Review, Weekly Standard and other publications. His most recent book is "Mere Environmentalism: A Biblical Perspective on Humans and the Natural World."

Ron Haskins

Haskins will give a presentation titled "Why Worry About the Federal Deficit?: Our Kids Can Pay" from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Feb. 19 in Old Main.

Since 2004, Haskins has served as senior editor of "The Future of Children," a collaboration between the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and the Brookings Institution. He has been a senior consultant to the Annie E. Casey Foundation since 2001 and has served in advisory and staff leadership positions in the White House and Congress.

Haskins has edited or co-edited several books. He is the author of "Work Over Welfare: The Inside Story of the 1996 Welfare Reform Law." He has appeared frequently on television and radio and has written essays published in The Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, National Review and others.

Linda Chavez

Chavez will give a presentation titled "A Conservative Approach to Immigration Reform" from 10 to 11 a.m. Feb. 18 in Old Main.

She is a 1970 graduate of CU, where she studied English literature, and she earned a master of fine arts in creative writing from George Mason University in 2012. She was director of public liaison at the White House during the Reagan administration and director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

She has been a syndicated columnist since 1987 and has written public policy books including "Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation." Chavez is also a Fox News Channel contributor, regular panelist on the PBS show "To the Contrary" and a frequent commentator on National Public Radio. In 2000, the Library of Congress named her a "Living Legend" for her contributions to America's cultural and historical legacy.

Among three finalists announced Monday for the University of Colorado's first visiting scholar in conservative thought is a Boulder woman who was a White House public liaison and director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights under President Reagan.

Later, under President Bush, Linda Chavez withdrew as a U.S. labor secretary nominee once it became known she had given money and a home to an illegal immigrant.

Chavez graduated from CU in 1970 and taught in a remedial program at the campus during the early years of affirmative action efforts. That inside look would later turn her into an opponent of affirmative action.

She is the sole candidate with ties to CU.

The other finalists for the visiting scholar in conservative thought and policy are: Steven Hayward, the Thomas W. Smith distinguished fellow at the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University in Ohio; and Ron Haskins, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.

The finalists will visit the campus over the next couple of weeks, giving public presentations, meeting with university leaders and faculty members as well as guest teaching in CU classrooms. The scholar who is selected for the two-semester job will begin teaching in the fall.

CU Chancellor Phil DiStefano described the new position -- which is paid for with donor money -- as a novel way to enrich discourse on the campus.

"Any one of the finalists, if selected, will contribute to the diversity of thought on campus by encouraging debate and discussion, by sharing their scholarship and career experience, and by hosting public events in the campus community and perhaps around the state," DiStefano said in a statement.

Haskins was the only finalist who could not be reached for comment Monday.

'No regrets' over helping immigrant

In 2001, Chavez withdrew her name as George W. Bush's nominee for secretary of labor and told reporters that the "search-and-destroy politics" would be a distraction to the incoming administration.

In the early 1990s, Chavez allowed Marta Mercado, a battered woman from Guatemala, to live in her home in Bethesda, Md. Chavez said she helped the woman enroll in English courses and linked her with a women's support group.

"I gave her a place to live and helped her learn English," she said in an interview with the Camera on Monday.

Chavez gave money to Mercado, but she said it was charity, not wages.

She said she has no regrets and that Mercado is now a legal U.S. citizen.

Inside look at affirmative action

Chavez has been a syndicated columnist since 1987 and has written public policy books including "Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation." In her book "An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-liberal (Or How I Became the Most Hated Hispanic in America)," Chavez is critical of affirmative action programs at colleges.

She said many students weren't served well by affirmative action.

"At both the University of Colorado and at UCLA, I witnessed firsthand the devastating impact these programs had on academic standards, race relations, and on the intended beneficiaries as well," she wrote in her book. "These kids came into school with huge handicaps, but instead of recognizing their academic deficiencies and trying to do whatever it took to improve them, many of the affirmative action students I taught preferred to wallow in self-pity. Their attitude -- as much as their social, economic, and educational disadvantages -- would make life difficult and success elusive."

When she guest teaches on campus, she said, she'll be discussing the Fisher v. University of Texas Supreme Court case, which challenges the consideration of race as a factor in admitting students.

Her book also describes a time in the late 1980s when she was on the Boulder campus to debate then-Colorado Attorney Gen. Duane Woodard about English language being the country's official language.

Students raised protest signs -- some of which were personal attacks -- to be captured by news cameras when she spoke. She hired an off-duty police officer to be her bodyguard because of the tension on the campus.

As a scholar who has been on the college-speaking circuit, she said she doesn't feel that political tensions are nearly as hostile on campuses now.

She said the position she's in the running for will help students get a point of view they may not hear in their other classes.

"You don't want to propagandize students, but you want them to be exposed to all points of view," she said.

Hayward wants 'cross-pollination' of ideas

If chosen for the job, Hayward -- who has been a visiting lecturer in the government department at Georgetown University -- said he'd like for a liberal professor to join his classroom for occasional discussions.

"I think our public discourse in universities, and in the real world, goes much better when both sides bring their 'A' game," he said.

He said he favors the "cross-pollination of ideas."

If selected, he said, he'd approach the job in the spirit of constructive engagement, not combat.

"The remedy to left-wing dogmatism, or perceived left-wing dogmatism, in the classroom is not to self-consciously introduce right-wing dogmatism and call it 'balance,'" he said. "The university at its best should be about the thoughtful consideration of the full spectrum of ideas, seriously presented and discussed, in competition with one another."

Hayward said he wants the position to be one that's not viewed as a "freak show" on a predominantly liberal campus, or one that is just for conservative-leaning students.

Rather, he thinks it should be a mainstream position in a department where students of varying political opinions feel welcome and interested.

Scaled-back plans

CU originally unveiled grand plans in 2007 to establish a visiting chair in conservative thought and policy, which would have required $7 million to $9 million to fund. But school officials have said the sluggish economy caused them to scale back plans and instead run a pilot program to bring visiting scholars to Boulder.

CU has raised $1 million in donations for its visiting scholar in conservative thought and policy, a position that is funded for at least three years.

As part of the selection process, each finalist will visit the campus for a day and meet privately with the search committee, chancellor, provost and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Each will also teach a class.

Since last summer, an advisory committee made up of faculty and community members has been searching for candidates. The committee has sought a "highly visible" scholar who is "deeply engaged in either the analytical scholarship or practice of conservative thinking and policymaking or both."

Keith Maskus, associate dean of social sciences and chairman of the committee, said the scholar, once selected, will teach courses ranging from large introductory courses to smaller seminar-style classes.

"I'm excited about all three finalists," he said. "Each has a long career writing about policy questions and engaging in policy debate. All of them are well connected to Washington, D.C., and are well-known commentators and scholars."